U.S. Department of Agriculture

News about U.S. Department of Agriculture, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 10, 2015

Agriculture Sec Tom Vilsack says US Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska will not be permitted to begin any new experimental projects until its oversight panel adequately fulfills its intended role of ensuring that experiments on animals minimize pain and suffering. MORE

Feb. 14, 2015

Agriculture Dept approves commercial use of genetically engineered apples that are less likely to turn brown when fruit is injured, determining that planting of so-call biotech apples pose no risk to other plants; developer Okanagan Specialty Fruits asserts that apples will appeal to most consumers but critics disagree, fearing image of fruit will be tainted. MORE

Feb. 11, 2015

Agriculture Department releases report estimating that net income for United States farmers will be $73.6 billion in 2015, down nearly 32 percent from $108 billion in 2014; would mark second consecutive year of declining income. MORE

Jan. 2, 2015

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company and several other firms are developing genetically modified crops with methods that are beyond scope of Agriculture Department or use unforeseen new techniques like 'genome editing'; critics fear unintended consequences of new plants created by bioengineering. MORE

Dec. 13, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Ted Genoways warns that experimental inspection program approved by Food Safety and Inspection Service of United States Department of Agriculture and intended to speed pork production raises risk of contaminated pork; urges USDA inspector general and Government Accountability Office to intervene and verify its safety before program is rolled out across pork-processing industry. MORE

Nov. 7, 2014

Agriculture Dept will allow Chinese poultry processing companies to ship fully cooked, frozen and refrigerated chicken to United States; change in policy follows one year after department approved export of chicken raised in the United States to be processed in China. MORE

Oct. 10, 2014

Agriculture Dept conditionally approves two vaccines for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, condition that killed at least 10 percent of American hogs in the last year, and which is again threatening to emerge; vaccines are manufactured by Zoetis and Harrisvaccines, and a third, made by MJ Biologics, is on the horizon. MORE

Sep. 30, 2014

Asian long-horned beetle, believed to be eradicated in New York metropolitan area, has made a comeback; federal and state Agriculture Departments have boosted staffing to 119 people to track, kill and eradicate the beetle from its remaining strongholds in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island; workers will start removing tree species that are habitats for the insects. MORE

Sep. 29, 2014

Agriculture Dept plans to announce that it will spend $52 million to support local and regional food systems like farmers' markets and food hub and to spur research on organic farming. MORE

Sep. 18, 2014

Agriculture Dept has approved commercial planting of corn and soybeans genetically engineered to survive being sprayed by herbicide 2,4-D; critics say cultivation of the crops, developed by Dow AgroSciences, will mean a sharp increase in the spraying of 2,4-D, chemical they say is more damaging to the environment, nearby non-engineered crops and possibly human health. MORE

Aug. 26, 2014

Agriculture Dept reports that retail prices for meat in United States continue to rise on combination of drought and disease; overall food cost increases remain near long-term averages. MORE

Aug. 1, 2014

Agriculture Dept releases long-awaited poultry-inspection rules that will give plant operators the option of conducting their own inspections for bird defects and feces on the processing lines and allow government inspectors to concentrate on other food issues in the plant. MORE

Jun. 28, 2014

Ten Asian and Pacific nations, known as Trans-Pacific Partnership, tell Office of the United States Trade Representative that Agriculture Dept’s catfish inspection program violates international law; say program is trade barrier erected under guise of food safety measure; their objections could hamper Obama administration efforts to reach a major Pacific trade agreement by the end of 2015. MORE

Jun. 13, 2014

Agriculture Dept announces $31.5 million for a program to help citrus fruit industry combat so-called greening disease; plant condition threatens Florida's $9 billion citrus industry and has driven up the cost of orange juice. MORE

May. 21, 2014

Agriculture Department will allow some schools to delay adding more whole-grain foods to meals, responding to criticism from school officials and Congress that the standards were too difficult to meet. MORE

Feb. 21, 2014

Union official and food safety group say Agriculture Department is suffering from shortage of inspectors at some of nation's meat and poultry plants, raising possibility that contaminated products could reach consumers. MORE

Jan. 18, 2014

Pressure is mounting on lawmakers working on farm bill to negotiate a deal before end of January, when the Agriculture Department is to begin enforcing a series of decades-old laws that could cause price of milk and other agricultural products to double; deal was reached to cut about $9 billion from the program over 10 years, but was held up by Speaker John A Boehner. MORE

Dec. 19, 2013

Outcry from animal rights advocates is increasing over plan by officials in East Hampton calling for federal sharpshooters to thin out deer population in one of largest government deer removals ever taken; plan is part of initiative from Long Island Farm Bureau and United States Department of Agriculture, aiming to remove 2,000 to 3,000 deer from an estimated population of 25,000 to 35,000. MORE

Oct. 19, 2013

Editorial warns salmonella-contaminated chicken is still being sold months after it sickened hundreds of people; holds under current law, Food Safety and Inspection Service, unit of Agriculture Department, was unable to compel Foster Farms to recall the tainted products; urges Congress to hold hearings to determine if department needs more power to protect the public from potentially serious harm. MORE

Sep. 5, 2013

Government Accountability Office report says Agriculture Department's plan to change its poultry inspection procedures relied on incomplete and antiquated data; new rules will allow workers at plants, rather than agency inspectors, to examine birds on processing lines for blemishes or feces. MORE

Aug. 25, 2013

Gretchen Morgenson Fair Game column asserts that Agriculture Department trumpets its business and industry loan program as a rousing success, but questions number of actual jobs it has created; says program is well-intentioned, but with taxpayers backing the $1.6 billion effort, reliable job counts would be preferable. MORE

Aug. 18, 2013

Troubled new computer system for meatpacking and processing plants shut down for two days in August, leading to the shipment of millions of pounds of meat that had not been tested for contaminants; Agriculture Dept plays down threat to public safety and insists breakdown had not compromised nation's meat supply. MORE

Jul. 18, 2013

Editorial contends actual mission of Agriculture Department's Wildlife Services is to make life safer for livestock and game species, despite its official mission of protecting wildlife; holds their techniques, like steel traps and cyanide cartridges, are destructive to balance of ecosystems; urges Agriculture Department to bring agency's work into accord with sound biological practices. MORE

Jul. 3, 2013

Several animal rights groups file lawsuit against Agriculture Department, seeking to prevent it from inspecting horse meat that some companies want to produce for human consumption; department announced its approval for horse slaughtering at plant in Iowa, second facility approved for processing equine meat in week. MORE

Jun. 29, 2013

Plant in New Mexico that plans to slaughter horses to produce meat for human consumption moves step closer to operation as Agriculture Department announces that it will provide legally required inspection services; plant is owned by Valley Meat Company. MORE

Jun. 18, 2013

Editorial warns more and better-trained federal meat inspectors are badly needed;.cites United States Department of Agriculture report finding several fundamental flaws in meat inspection, including fact that serial violators of health standards are often allowed to continue operations. MORE

May. 1, 2013

Apr. 26, 2013

Government payments to address minority farmers’ claims of discrimination by the Agriculture Department have ballooned amid signs of fraud; in all, more than 90,000 people have filed claims, and total cost could top $4.4 billion. MORE

Mar. 1, 2013

United States Department of Agriculture is likely to approve horse slaughtering plant in New Mexico, allowing production of equine meat for human consumption for the first time since 2007; move follows growing concern among American consumers that horse meat will make its way into ground beef products. MORE

Dec. 23, 2012

United States Court of Appeals for 11th Circuit rules that Agriculture Dept can regulate 45 celebrated six-toed cats at Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Fla; says cats fall under jurisdiction of the Animal Welfare Act because the museum uses them as exhibits available to paying tourists; fear of museum owners is that any future changes in federal regulations could upend the museum and the cats. MORE

Oct. 27, 2012

Agriculture Department lowers its estimate of annual sugar consumption in United States to 76.7 pounds a person from nearly 100 pounds; decision raises questions about entire notion of per-capita consumption just as battles over sugar and sweeteners reach peak. MORE

Oct. 12, 2012

Agriculture Department revises its estimates for soybean production upward, sign that prolonged drought had less of an impact on the crop than had been feared; report lowers estimates for production of corn, country's largest cash crop. MORE

Sep. 11, 2012

Agriculture Dept lifts its suspension of Central Valley Meat Company, slaughterhouse that has been at the center of an animal cruelty investigation, as a meat supplier for federal food programs after inspectors find no evidence of sick cattle. MORE

Sep. 1, 2012

Agriculture Department, in addition to its routine purchases for school lunches and food banks, will buy up an extra $10 million in catfish to aid producers who have been devastated by overproduction and high feed prices; fish farmers say the aid is unlikely to reverse a 10-year decline in production. MORE

Jul. 26, 2012

United States Department of Agriculture retreats from its participation in a 'Meatless Monday' program following an outpouring of criticism from livestock producers and others. MORE

May. 25, 2012

Agriculture Dept proposes rule that would crack down on food stamp recipients who illegally sell their benefit cards and then ask for replacements. MORE

Apr. 10, 2012

Study by the Agriculture Department finds that food stamps, one of the country’s largest social safety net programs, reduced the poverty rate by nearly 8 percent in 2009, a significant impact for a social program whose effects often go unnoticed by policy makers. MORE

Mar. 23, 2012

Department of Agriculture announces that it will not require an extensive environmental review before issuing mortgages to people who have leased their land for oil and gas drilling, reversing policy announced in a series of earlier emails. MORE

Mar. 19, 2012

Department of Agriculture may require an extensive environmental review before issuing mortgages to people who have leased their land for oil and gas drilling, out of concern that soaring number of such mortgages may violate the National Environmental Policy Act; in 2011 more than 140,000 families received roughly $18 billion in loans or loan guarantees from the department under the Rural Housing Service program. MORE

Mar. 16, 2012

Agriculture Department will offer bulk ground beef patties for use in school cafeterias that do not include infamous 'pink slime,' low-cost filler that has become a popular topic across social media. MORE

Dec. 24, 2011

Department of Agriculture, in abrupt about-face, reverses decision to eliminate dozens of long-standing statistical reports on a wide range of farming activities; agency said in October it was forced by budget constraints to cut reports. MORE

Nov. 22, 2011

Department of Agriculture has begun initiative to promote agroforestry, process of growing native crops under a canopy of trees which is far more sustainable and resistant to climate change than traditional farming. MORE

Nov. 16, 2011

Federal lawmakers drafting a House and Senate compromise for the Agriculture Department's spending bill block the agency from overhauling the nation's school lunch program; proposed rules would have added more fruits and vegetables to lunch menus, and lowered amounts of sodium and potatoes, in an effort to reduce childhood obesity. MORE

Nov. 9, 2011

The Agriculture Department is eliminating dozens of reports on product inventories, including those for catfish, hops and trout, alarming the farmers who depend on the figures; some other commodities vital to the nation's economy will still be weighed, inventoried and tallied. MORE